Improvement in sewing-machines



2 Sheets--Sheet1.

l. H. SMITH.

Sewing-Machines.

Patented March 24,1874.

2 Sheets--Sheet 2.

J. H. SMITH. Sewing-Machines. No.148,902, Patented March24,1874.

mine/aj.- nvnor UNITED frans JAMES HENRY SMITH, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN SEWING-MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. l4S,902, dated March24, 1874; application filed December 5, 1573.

To all whom t may concer-n:

Beit known that l, JAMES HENRY SMITH, of N o. el Mary street, ArlingtonSquare, in the county of Middlesex, England, have invented anImprovement in Shuttle Sewing-Machines 5 and do hereby declare that thefollowing description, taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings hereinafter referred to, forms a full and exact specication ofthe same, wherein I have set forth the nature and principles of my saidimprovement, by which my invention may be distinguished from others of asimilar class, together with such parts as I claim and desire to secureby Letters Patent-that is to say:

My invention relates to that class of sewingmachines known as shuttlesewing-machines; and the nature thereof consists in certain improvementsin the construction of the same and novel combinations of the partsthereof, hereinafter shown and described. Furthermore, the mechanism bywhich the threadholder receives its motion is so arranged that it can bethrown out of gear, even while the machine is at work, whereby themachine is also enabled to produce the ordinary lockstitch, and tochange from one kind of stitch to another at the will of the operator.

My said invention will be readily understood from the accompanyingdrawings, in which Figure 1 shows a part plan of a shuttle-machine withmy impro vement applied thereto, the shuttle beingin its most backwardposition. Fig. 2 shows the same view withthe shuttle passing through theloop of the needle-thread. Fig.

3 shows a sectional elevation on line X X, Fig.

l. Figs. 4, 5, and 6 show perspective views of the thread-holder,shuttle, and needle in their di'erent relative positions, and Fig. 7shows a plan of the device for throwing the thread-holder in or out ofgear.

A is the thread-holder or hook, fixed on a spindle, B, passing throughthe framing C,

and carrying beneath the same a nger, D. Alever, E, pivoted at c to abracket, F, is actuated by a cam, G, on the feed-motion shaft, so as topress back the finger D, and with it the spindle B and thread-holder A,into the backward position shown in Fig. l, during the backward motionand part of the forward motion of the shuttle H, while, during theremainder of the forward motion of the shuttle, the retreating' surfaceof the cam allows the spring I, connected at 011e end to the framing andat the other end to the fin ger D, to draw the finger back against theaction of the lever, and thus to turn the thread-holder A into theforward position shown in full lines in Fig. 2. From this arrangement,it will be seen, that when the shuttle is passing through the loop kofthe needle-thread, the thread-holder A advances into the position shownin Fig. 4. On the further advance of the shuttle, and when the loop isabout to leave it, the thread-holder advances into the loop, as shown atFigs. 2 and 5, so that when the loop leaves the shuttle it is caught bythe thread -holder. The latter is then made, by the action of the cam Gand lever E, to retreat with the loop la into the position shown in Fig.6, and in dotted lines in Fig. 2, with the shuttle-thread 7Lpassingthrough the loop back to the last stitch. While the thread-holderis in this position the needle K, in descending, passes through theloop, carrying the loop for the next stitch through with it, and thethread-holder, in then retreating into the position shown in Fig. l,leaves the loop 7c on the needle. By this means a compound lock andchain stitch, or looped lock-stitch,77 is formed, of which a plan to amagniiied scale is shown at Fig'. 8, where 7L is the shuttle-threadpassing through the loops of the needle-thread k.

It will be evident that it" there be no thread in the shuttle, a simplechain-stitch will be produced by the above operation.

L is a lever, pivoted at l to the bracket F, and having a stud, l', insuch a position that, when the lever is moved by hand into the positionshown at Fig. 7, the stud l presses the lever E back, so as to be out ofcontact vwith the cam G, whereby also the thread-holder A is held in thebackward position, and is consequently prevented from performing theabovedescribed operation. In this case, the machine makes the ordinarylock-stitch. By simply throwing the lever L back into the position shownin Fig. l, the thread-holder A will be brought into action again, and itwill be seen that the throwing into or out of action of the thread-holder may be readily effected while the machine is working.

In the drawings, my invention is shown as applied to machines with acurved shuttlerace, such as the Wanzer machine. It is, however, equallyapplicable to shuttle machines of other construction.

Having thus described the nature of my invention, and in what manner thesame is to be performed, I claim- 1. In shuttle sewing-machines, thethreadholder A, operating in combination with the iin ger D, spring I,lever E, and cam G, for producing a looped lock-stitch or chain-stitch,substantially as hereinbefore described.

2. The lever L, operating in combination with the lever E, for throwingthe threadholder A in or ont of action, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specication inthepresence of two subscribing witnesses this 1st day of October, 1873.

JAMES HENRY SMITH.

Witnesses:

GHAs. D. ABEL, J No. P. M. MILLARD.

